Ok, so maybe not shot, but I wouldn’t lose sleep over these latest bastards getting a good old fashioned ass-kicking.
Last year (ironically, also in November), I had my first run-in with Taggers. You can read the story as it unfolded:
I was pretty pleased with not only our local police department’s response, but also the parents who stepped up to make sure their youngsters learned a lesson out of it all.
Now, I’ve mentioned my mid-life crisis car on here before. I sold my muscle car back in 1998 when husband was deployed to the middle east the first time after we were married. We needed the money and my old girl was just sitting in Alabama while we were in Virginia with orders to move to Alaska. It broke my heart to sell her, but at the time, I didn’t have much choice.
So, in August of 2006 when husband talked me into driving a new Mustang GT, I knew better than getting behind the wheel. I knew once I drove that car I’d be in love – and of course, a quick trip up the road and back was enough to convince me this was MY mid-life crisis car heh heh. Thanks to 0% interest courtesty of Ford – we drove her home that afternoon.
Since then, I’ve splurged and had a new stripe kit put on her and hood pins. I’m hoping to get a job in the next year so I can put a $1400 upgrade kit on her (cold air intake, new exhaust system and a computer chip that will bump the horsepower up to around 330) and a new set of rims I have my heart set on. It’s been a real example of control with the extra moola from the deployment not to splurge while husband has been gone heh heh, but I’ve been good and only spent money on oil changes and the hood pins and stripe kit 
. Here’s a pic I took back in June:
So, November 17th started out like most mornings. I let our dogs out, started some coffee and fixed my babies some breakfast. I finally sit down around 8:15 to enjoy my first cup of coffee when someone comes up on my porch and rings my doorbell. I think it’s probably someone trying to sell something, so I ignore it. Again, they ring the doorbell and the dogs bark like fools. I keep thinking, “Damn, it’s too early in the morning people. I’m still in my PJs and I’m not answering the door. GO AWAY.” Again, they ring the bell…and now I’m ready to tell someone to get off my damn porch – and not in a nice way heh heh.
I get my big dogs outside and go to the door. I’m shocked to see my across the street neighbor standing there. She’s never been ugly to us – but she’s always been stand-off-ish, which is fine with me. Some days she’ll wave when she goes by, some days she won’t. We’ve been here five years and I finally stopped waving regularly after the first couple of months we lived here – never knowing if she’d bother to wave or not be in a great mood and glare lol.
Anyhow, I open the door and she says, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but the bastards got your car last night.”
I said, “OH NO. You’re shittin’ me!”
She says, “I wish I was, but when I got up this morning and looked out – it was the first thing I saw. I knew you’d want to know and call the police.”
I told her I really appreciated her coming over and telling me. And, of course between the stress of husband about to come home and some freakin’ punks SPRAY PAINTING my car, the tears well up. I told her I sure didn’t understand why someone would do this. She said she didn’t either and – she actually gave me a hug. She was so nice to me that morning and I really do appreciate her coming over and letting me know.
I came back in the house and called the police. Just like last year – they were here in minutes. The two officers were so nice and asked if I’d had any problems since yelling at the two boys aggravating a neighbor’s dog. One of the officers was the one who spoke to me a few months back about them. I told him I hadn’t seen them since that day and I’d not seen anything odd. At the time, I was the only car that had been reported, but while they were taking the info from my license and getting the VIN off my car, they got word over the radio of another car that had been tagged about a block away.
I hate for anyone else to have gotten their property damaged too, but at the same time, I was a bit relieved. At least I knew it was a random thing and someone wasn’t targeting our house. On Halloween night, the postal box that sits in the far corner of our yard was spray painted with “JENA 16.” The Post Office sent someone out to replace it because they were afraid it might be in reference to the Jena thing in Louisiana. I have an Alabama flag (and NO it is not the “stars and bars”) hanging from my rear view mirror and my tag has a reference to Alabama. The man replacing the postal box had wondered if it might be due to that. Then to have my car tagged a few weeks later and mine be the only one was making me nervous. It looks like now though that it was a random act.
Here’s a picture of my car after it was sprayed:
I told the policemen I was going to run it up to Ford and see what they suggested. He said he hoped they’d know of something to get it off, but most likely they’d have to repaint it.
It’s now about 9 in the morning and the babies and I are going to Ford. I get up there and park at the service department and go in to see if the guy who set up the work they did on the stripes and all was there. The other gentleman who works in service said he wasn’t there, but asked if he could help me. I told him to look out the door and see what he thought. All he said was, “OH NO….”
I said, “Yep, sucks doesn’t it? But, I didn’t want to let it sit all weekend…thought maybe it would make it worse.”
He said once it dried, it was on there and he didn’t think he could do anything with it. He said to hang on and let him call someone… By now, everyone from the service department was looking at it and shaking their heads and I’m trying to hide tears with my sun glasses on. The mechanic who usually works on my car walked in and said he sure was sorry…
I have to put a plug in here for our local Ford dealership. Their service department is excellent – and EVERYONE who works there is absolutely awesome!
About that time, a lady who is pretty new to Ford walked in and said, “It’s wiping right off! Come see!”
I about fell out of my chair. I couldn’t believe it. She said she thought if this stuff called D-TAR would get road tar off, it might just work on spray paint. She said she figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least try it. And, sure enough – it wiped right off! You would have thought it was shoe polish or something with the way it wiped off after she sprayed the D-TAR stuff on it.
WHEW!!!
Here’s a pic of it after we got home from Ford and running it through the car wash afterwards:
For the next ten days or so, I stayed up late worrying they’d come back. I locked the glass door and left our wood door open. Dakota would lay in front of the door and bark any time anyone walked by. I figured the bastards would ride by and see the spray paint removed so quickly and decide to either key the doors or bust out the windows – or both.
I stopped in to my regular gas station today to fill up the car and the lady in there asked if I knew Ann who worked there. I told her I sure did. She said that Ann’s husband’s truck got tagged last night and the police told her that their vehicle was the third one hit in the last month. The lady told Ann that mine was the first one – and told her how I’d taken it up to Ford and they were able to get it off for me. So hopefully, Ann was able to get the spray paint off their truck too. I usually stop and get a soda every day before I pick up the babies from school, so I’ll see her tomorrow and find out for sure.
Hopefully the police will find out who is doing this soon. Usually someone dumb enough to damage other folks’ property is dumb enough to brag about it too. It’s a small town and word travels fast heh heh.
